Search

When I was seventeen I opened my eyes
to reality, because I cut my hair
and boys kept telling me to be more feminine
even though I was wearing a dress,
as if to say I didn’t deserve the right to
call myself a woman if I wasn’t girly enough
in society’s eyes.

When I turned eighteen I got a tattoo
and some guys told me they wouldn’t date
me anymore,
as if to say I ever asked them to.

When I was only fifteen, it got so hot
at school I took off my sweater and I got sent
to the principal’s office because my shoulders
were sending a sexual message to boys,
and was forced to wear my sweater the whole day,
as if to say my health was less important
than what was in a boy’s mind.

And at nineteen, a stranger slapped my ass
when I went out and told me it was my own
fault for wearing a short skirt,
as if I gave him permission to touch MY body
and got blamed for it myself.

And I also got blamed for not having sex
with a boy because he was “nice”,
which is basically telling me I’m a tease
because a boy treated me like an actual human being
and I didn’t give him what he wanted afterwards.

Tell me sexism doesn’t exist because women
in third world countries have it worse,
and I can only say “Oppression isn’t a competition”
and young girls shouldn’t think this behavior
is normal or ever accept it.

When the entertainment channel launched the Look Different campaign in the spring of 2014, I could not contain my excitement. The Look Different campaign focuses on microaggressions and looks to tackle the internalized bias that often lies behind problematic statements and interactions. Finally, someone in media was looking to take some responsibility for the (mis)education of the digital generations and use their power for good — or at least for better.

In an unintentionally viral video, a Saudi Arabian historian justified his nation’s ban against women drivers by arguing that it protects them from roadside rape.

Saudi Arabia’s prohibition on women driving instituted in 1990, has been defiedseveraltimes in recent years by women who have filmed themselves driving in protest. The government has responded with a crackdown, arresting women who break the law and even sending two women to a the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh which handles terrorism cases.

But don’t worry. There’s a good reason for this ban.

In a recent TV interview, historian Saleh Al-Saadoon claimed that the reason women are allowed to drive in Europe, America and ...

In an unintentionally viral video, a Saudi Arabian historian justified his nation’s ban against women drivers by arguing that it protects them from roadside rape.

A Northeastern University professor has created an interactive chart that reveals the gendered biases in students’ evaluations of their profs on RateMyProfessors.com. You can input any word — like, say, “genius” or “bossy” — and see how often it’s used by gender and academic department.

To continue with those examples, take a wild guess about how those two words broke down. Here are the results for “genius”:

And for “bossy”:

As the The Upshot sums up: “Men are more likely to be described as a star, knowledgeable, awesome or the best professor. Women are more likely to be described as bossy, disorganized, helpful, annoying or as playing favorites. Nice or rude are also more often used to describe women than men.” I’m sure if you spend ...

A Northeastern University professor has created an interactive chart that reveals the gendered biases in students’ evaluations of their profs on RateMyProfessors.com. You can input any word — like, say, “genius” or “bossy” — and see how often it’s ...